The greater travesty, however, is that supermarket staff, who many inevitably are Singaporeans, had to work overtime to replenish stock to get ready for the next day's opening, or else, they might hear complaints to no end about food shortages.

Highlighting the efforts of staff who got supermarkets up and running in time again, Minister for Trade and Industry, Chan Chun Sing, wrote a Facebook post thanking the workers for their efforts.

He wrote:

A big thank you to all the staff who worked through the wee hours of the day to replenish the food items and household supplies that were swept off the shelves yesterday evening.

Our supply chains are intact and there has been no disruption to our imports. Our retailers have sufficient supplies and will continue to stock the shelves to ensure that everybody is able to purchase what they need.

Volunteers helped as well

But the herculean task of putting items back on bare shelves was too much of an ask.

As it turns out, some volunteer help was needed.

Seah Kian Peng, CEO of NTUC FairPrice Co-operative and Marine Parade GRC MP, shared on Facebook that staff and other colleagues in the NTUC Enterprise group came forward to volunteer to put items back on shelves.

He shared collages of what took place behind the scenes, which indicated the extensive amounts of manpower required.

Items can be seen taken off trucks and wheeled into the supermarket and arranged neatly on shelves by countless people.